Monument record FEX 296 - Royal Air Force Felixstowe 1913-1962

The station was established in 1913 by the naval wing of the Royal flying Corps, on land to the north of Languard barracks.
By the summer of 1914, when it was taken over by the Royal Navy Air Service, the station was already equipped with two hangars for the storage of seaplanes, a slipway and a scatter of ancillary buildings. In the course of 1914 and early1915, the slip way was extended and four further sheds were added. There was also a small 'conventional' landing ground.
In april 1915 three large (300x80ft) hangars with associated slipways and gangways to the estury.
In 1924 it became the headquarters of the Marine and Armament Experimental Station, the seaplane's equivalent of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough.
In 1926 the RAF's High Speed flight of seaplanes moved into the calmer waters of Calshott Spit in Southampton.
In the 1930's a massive crane was constructed on a reinforced concrete jetty, that was capable of lifting a 30 ton plane.
In 1937 the temporary living quarters were updated. The new buildings included four T-shaped office blocks, a servant's mess, dining room and airmen's institute.
The final building a watch tower was built in 1939 (S1).
Further details in (S2).

Shed 22 is a 91.4 x 48.7m steel-framed shed built in 1915 as part of the Felixstowe flying boat station. Shed 22 was one of the two large buildings (known at the time as ‘workshops’ or ‘erecting sheds’) which were put up in July 1915 in order to reassemble the ‘Small Americas’. The function of these workshops explains both their exceptional size and their form, which is not typical of hangars. In particular they were two bays deep, with only a single door, spanning two bays. Two parallel gantry cranes ran the entire length of each ‘aisle’ and the roof girders were set within the trusses to give extra height. At either end, single storey lean-to workshops were added, shortly after completion. In the years after WW1, the erecting sheds continued to be used to construct the increasingly large experimental planes designed by John Porle. Further increases in wingspans, however, meant that these flying boats could only be housed in the area immediately adjacent to the door. In the 1920s the door of shed 22 was rebuilt, enlarged to 105’ x 40’ high. Modifications were made to the roof in the 1928. The decision to hand aircraft design and construction over to industry deprived the erecting sheds of their original function. They probably continued to be used as repair shops, as well as for aircraft storage, though their shape and form meant that they were not particularly efficient: the front line of bays had be kept clear to allow free access to the doors. However, the declining importance of flying boats in general, and Felixstowe in particular, meant that there was no pressure for their alteration or demolition. In 1966 the seaplane station (having been briefly taken over by the army) was sold, with its buildings largely intact, to the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company. During the following years, the hangars and erecting sheds were gradually cleared, as the need for container storage space grew. Today, only Shed 22 (plus a couple of other ancillary buildings) survive. In recent years it has been entirely reclad, removing the original windows but preserving the original frame and gantries, as well as the modified door (S3).

Dome Trainer at RAF Felixstowe, shown on the 1967 OS 1:2500 map (S4).